Day 74

Day 74 Kakadu

Well we woke up in Pine Creek and as usual Maureen was off early for a walk around town. The brochure said there were 10 things to see in town and Maureen was determined to see all ten! She

Sunrise Pine Creek

 

went down to the Miners Park which is full of mining equipment and details of the mining history of the area. It has mined tin and copper and gold and now it seems Uranium. She then went past all the old houses and buildings in town as well. When she got back to the park the manager asked where she had been and she told him, well he said, did you see the thing that people come from around the world to

Bar/ Hotel

Miners park

see? What? The Blue Parrot. Never heard of it says Maureen and got growled at, how could she not? It was world famous! Well it is not in the brochure said Maureen. So off she went again looing at all the parrots, which I must say we had admired the day before because they were so colourful and bright. She took a photo of a blue parrot and too it back to him and he said that was it, she could move on now. So we did.

Miner park

Water Gardens

We hit the road and took the turn off to Kakadu. The drive was very plain to start with but it got very picturesque as we hit the National Park. We stopped just outside and bought our park permits from the tourist centre from a Scottish backpacker working there who told us the permits were not for the car but for us! We have to have them on us at all times! Bit of a problem as my boardies don’t have pockets. We are now very edgy as we walk around town in case a ranger jumps out and asks us for our permits. If we don’t have it on us, is he going to pull out his dog loop and grab me round the neck – “you got a permit for this one Ma’am?” “no officer, never seen him before, must be feral”.

The Original?

Original Caravan Park

“don’t worry ma’am I will take him in and put him down. No permit, no stay for strays”…

Anyhow, we hit the park entrance, well not quite, the stone wall is a little off the road, but I did come close! We get past it and Maureen says “Buffalo” in a very casual way that I thought she was talking about lunch. 2 seconds later she says – there was a buffalo back there, you know big horns and stuff. Too late to stop now and now where to turn around, so we will have to take

Chook resort

her word for it. The land had suddenly changed at the entrance in that things were green and there was a stream with water in it nearby and as we drove we could see where buffalo had been but no more buffalo to be seen – most disappointed! As we went further and saw no more we think that it was a tourist plant that is put there were you cannot stop and go back to check, possibly a statue just far enough off the road to see for sure.

The land here is definitely greener and wetter and the bridges had water under them as well. We

Survey trig point

Old ore stamp

drove through to Jabiru and we were going to look at the two parks here to decide which one to go to. We went to the first one – Kakadu Lodge and it looked nice and Maureen went in to the office to check prices and mentioned we were going to check out the other and the lady said they were the only one with a pool. Book us in said Maureen and we did. Pick a site, any site so long as it does not have a sign saying it is under restoration “I am tired and need a rest, please choose another site” it says, or have a sprinkler on it. Maureen had done a quick recce of the park and already had one in mind so we drove down to it. It is under a huge shady tree and right across from the pool, perfect. There are

Blue Parrot and our pass out of town

other parrots

only a dozen or so vans here but a few on-site units as well as tour groups coming in, but in general I would say it is less than 10% full.

We stopped and setup Girt and then went for a drive back to the tourist centre where we found a local girl there who went over the options for us for tours and sites to see without long walks or with paths I can take the Beast down. She was very good and soon had a list of things to do. We came

other parrots

Parrot totem pole

back to camp and had tea and then went to the pool for a swim at night. The pool is wonderful with a sloping entry and the water is cool rather than warm so it is very refreshing. Tomorrow we plan on a quiet day to rest and catch up a bit.

Pine Creek social club

Kakadu Tourist Cntre